This review may contain spoilers
A Decent Reboot of "The Lost Tomb"
After the end of "Archives: The Nanyang Mystery", I feel there is no harm in continuing "Time Raiders" and pick up where I left off last year. Basically, "Time Raiders" covers "The Lost Tomb" by Li Yifeng and Yang Yang and the first half of "The Lost Tomb 2" by Neo Hou and Cheng Yi. Most casts are fresh faces or newbies - so, this drama can determine where their acting level is.
"Time Raiders" focuses heavily on the Iron Triangle trio - Wu Xie, Wang Pangzi, and Zhang Qiling - as they explore dangerous tombs and develop a strong friendship bond in life-and-death situations. Wu Xie is a naive yet enthusiastic young man, and expertise in tomb raiding and antique appraisal, courtesy of his grandfather, Wu Laogou, and his third uncle, Wu Sanxing. Zhang Qiling is the current patriarch of the elusive Zhang Family (you can read more about Zhang Family in "Archives: The Nanyang Mystery" review), has a taciturn and serious personality, but loses his memory upon entering the Underwater Tomb of Paracel Islands. Wang Pangzi is someone whom Wu Xie accidentally befriends during the chaotic adventure in King Lu's Seven Star Palace. Despite having no history whatsoever, Pangzi is willing to help Wu Xie repeatedly, thus making the two of them into best friends. There are also Uncle Sanxing - a cunning old fox who has raided numerous tombs across China, Pan Zi and Da Kui - Uncle Sanxing's loyal followers (as the first arc ends, Pan Zi is severely injured and in a coma for a long time when Wu Xie sets off to the underwater tomb, and Da Kui sacrifices himself to save Wu Xie), and A Ning - a badass and no-nonsense mercenary girlie who has her personal agenda to enter the underwater tomb.
I'm not going to blab about the secret trap and historical philosophy of each tomb here, but I can give a rough outline of what happens in this drama. The first half indeed takes place in King Lu's Seven Star Palace. It is an eerie tomb where a giant dead soldier resides and guards the tomb from intruders, tons of corpse beetles that can feed on your blood any moment, a green-eyed fox corpse which can make people hallucinate, and a nine-headed snake cypress which is a huge carnivorous tree feeding on surrounding creatures. If you're into this drama, you'll have to prepare yourself for sudden jumpscares, zombies, eating plants, and more - basically, a treat for horror lovers, but not me.
In the second half, the group will explore the Underwater Tomb of Paracel Islands, where Uncle Sanxing's teammates once vanished and never came back until today. I actually don't watch this part anymore as I can't hold up more jumpscares in the following episodes. Underwater Tomb of Paracel Islands is actually a massive shipwreck which was deliberately sunk in the sea, and was constructed by a prominent astronomer and feng shui master at that era, Wang Zanghai (for those of you who are curious, you can check out "Legend of Zanghai" by Xiao Zhan and Zhang Jingyi). There are a myriad of strange things happening inside the shipwreck and perhaps, Uncle Sanxing's story might not be as simple as it seems (Aunt Wenjin's diary recorded that it was Uncle Sanxing who had been ogling to see the tomb, not herself, while he tells Wu Xie otherwise when being asked).
From the casts, I only recognize Xu Zhenxuan, Cheng Xiang, and Daisy Li (aside from that, all of them are unknown to me). However, coupled with strong script and gripping storytelling, the casts utilize all of their acting skills and eventually bring out Kennedy Xu's masterpiece once again. I especially like Pan Zi's actor, Cao Lei - his micro-expression when showing affection to Wu Xie really hits the nail and I can't help but root for him. On the other hand, Daisy Li somehow lacks the ruthlessness displayed by other actresses who have played Ah Ning before, including Li Man and Hankiz Omar. Xu Zhenxuan, Cheng Xiang, and Sun Ge Chuan Ye manage to recreate the iconic moments of the past Iron Triangle, and well, I love their comedic banters despite the danger lurking nearby.
As of now, I have no luck in digging through the OSTs on either Spotify or Weibo, but I can say it's such a nice song. Anyway, CGI, sets, and backgrounds are perfectly done, as if we were thrown into the real tomb, and somehow the tomb look like natural-made. I keep wondering to myself how ancient folks could build such intricate tomb as their final resting places - but that's how reality works.
For those who are Kennedy Xu's fanatic fans, "Time Raiders" is highly recommended to tomb-raiding lovers. It has an equilibrium ingredient of action, thriller, suspense, comedy, and mystery in one pack. And if you feel "The Lost Tomb" in 2015 lacks something, then you can try to rewatch the scenes through "Time Raiders". I'll be waiting for its season 2. Thank you for reading, good luck, and happy watching!!!
"Time Raiders" focuses heavily on the Iron Triangle trio - Wu Xie, Wang Pangzi, and Zhang Qiling - as they explore dangerous tombs and develop a strong friendship bond in life-and-death situations. Wu Xie is a naive yet enthusiastic young man, and expertise in tomb raiding and antique appraisal, courtesy of his grandfather, Wu Laogou, and his third uncle, Wu Sanxing. Zhang Qiling is the current patriarch of the elusive Zhang Family (you can read more about Zhang Family in "Archives: The Nanyang Mystery" review), has a taciturn and serious personality, but loses his memory upon entering the Underwater Tomb of Paracel Islands. Wang Pangzi is someone whom Wu Xie accidentally befriends during the chaotic adventure in King Lu's Seven Star Palace. Despite having no history whatsoever, Pangzi is willing to help Wu Xie repeatedly, thus making the two of them into best friends. There are also Uncle Sanxing - a cunning old fox who has raided numerous tombs across China, Pan Zi and Da Kui - Uncle Sanxing's loyal followers (as the first arc ends, Pan Zi is severely injured and in a coma for a long time when Wu Xie sets off to the underwater tomb, and Da Kui sacrifices himself to save Wu Xie), and A Ning - a badass and no-nonsense mercenary girlie who has her personal agenda to enter the underwater tomb.
I'm not going to blab about the secret trap and historical philosophy of each tomb here, but I can give a rough outline of what happens in this drama. The first half indeed takes place in King Lu's Seven Star Palace. It is an eerie tomb where a giant dead soldier resides and guards the tomb from intruders, tons of corpse beetles that can feed on your blood any moment, a green-eyed fox corpse which can make people hallucinate, and a nine-headed snake cypress which is a huge carnivorous tree feeding on surrounding creatures. If you're into this drama, you'll have to prepare yourself for sudden jumpscares, zombies, eating plants, and more - basically, a treat for horror lovers, but not me.
In the second half, the group will explore the Underwater Tomb of Paracel Islands, where Uncle Sanxing's teammates once vanished and never came back until today. I actually don't watch this part anymore as I can't hold up more jumpscares in the following episodes. Underwater Tomb of Paracel Islands is actually a massive shipwreck which was deliberately sunk in the sea, and was constructed by a prominent astronomer and feng shui master at that era, Wang Zanghai (for those of you who are curious, you can check out "Legend of Zanghai" by Xiao Zhan and Zhang Jingyi). There are a myriad of strange things happening inside the shipwreck and perhaps, Uncle Sanxing's story might not be as simple as it seems (Aunt Wenjin's diary recorded that it was Uncle Sanxing who had been ogling to see the tomb, not herself, while he tells Wu Xie otherwise when being asked).
From the casts, I only recognize Xu Zhenxuan, Cheng Xiang, and Daisy Li (aside from that, all of them are unknown to me). However, coupled with strong script and gripping storytelling, the casts utilize all of their acting skills and eventually bring out Kennedy Xu's masterpiece once again. I especially like Pan Zi's actor, Cao Lei - his micro-expression when showing affection to Wu Xie really hits the nail and I can't help but root for him. On the other hand, Daisy Li somehow lacks the ruthlessness displayed by other actresses who have played Ah Ning before, including Li Man and Hankiz Omar. Xu Zhenxuan, Cheng Xiang, and Sun Ge Chuan Ye manage to recreate the iconic moments of the past Iron Triangle, and well, I love their comedic banters despite the danger lurking nearby.
As of now, I have no luck in digging through the OSTs on either Spotify or Weibo, but I can say it's such a nice song. Anyway, CGI, sets, and backgrounds are perfectly done, as if we were thrown into the real tomb, and somehow the tomb look like natural-made. I keep wondering to myself how ancient folks could build such intricate tomb as their final resting places - but that's how reality works.
For those who are Kennedy Xu's fanatic fans, "Time Raiders" is highly recommended to tomb-raiding lovers. It has an equilibrium ingredient of action, thriller, suspense, comedy, and mystery in one pack. And if you feel "The Lost Tomb" in 2015 lacks something, then you can try to rewatch the scenes through "Time Raiders". I'll be waiting for its season 2. Thank you for reading, good luck, and happy watching!!!
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